Flowable material mixing bag

ABSTRACT

Flowable materials, such as cement and sand, are mixed by placing the materials to be mixed in an elongate flexible resealable bag having handles at its opposite ends and alternately raising and lowering the handles relative to one another to cause the materials to tumble alternately in opposite directions within the bag. The bag is fashioned to have a greater girth at its center than near its ends.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based upon and claims priority from prior PCTApplication No. PCT/GB0102938 which claims filed on Sep. 3, 2001, whichclaims priority from prior Great Britain Application No. 0021924.6,filed Sep. 7, 2000, each of these prior disclosures are herebyincorporated by reference hereinto in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a bag for mixing a powder or otherflowable solid either with another flowable solid or with a liquid.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are many applications in which it is required to mix two powdersor to prepare a mix of a powder and a liquid. In particular in thebuilding trade, one may need to mix flowable solids such as sand, cementand ballast and to add water to form wet concrete.

Hitherto, the conventional method used for mixing powders with oneanother and with liquids has been to churn the ingredients. Cementmixers used for preparing plaster, mortar, cement and concrete use adrum that constantly rotates in the same direction and has an internalscrew for turning the constituents over or churning them until they arethoroughly mixed.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

There are several disadvantages to mixing ingredients in this manner.The first is that the process is somewhat messy and the ingredients areoften spilled. Second, the container used for the mixing is difficult toclean. When preparing building materials, contamination between batchescan cause some materials, such as plaster, to become unworkable veryquickly. Furthermore, cement mixers require power and cannot be used inlocations where electricity is not readily available.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,636, it is proposed to mix single bag quantitiesof blended cement and aggregate with water to form concrete using aflexible mat that is arranged with a shallow central basin bounded by aflat skirt. A plurality of handles, suitably four, are provided in theskirt near the mat edge. A sufficient amount of water to mix with asingle bag or batch of pre-blended cement and aggregate is placed in thebasin, and the batch amount of cement and aggregate is then poured ontothe mat atop the water. Two persons grasp the mat by way of adjacenthandles and mix the water with the cement and aggregate by alternatelyraising and lowering diagonally opposite mat handles.

Though this proposal avoids the need for power, it is still very messy,especially when used with fine powders such as plaster, because thepowder is not contained during the mixing process nor while it is beingpoured from a bag into the basin of the mixing mat.

FR 2 765 195 discloses packaging for two constituents that are to bemixed with one another. To mix the constituents, they are placed in acylindrical flexible tube and the ends of the tube are raised andlowered alternately to cause the contents to tumble and mix with oneanother.

In practice, it is found that when using a cylindrical tube, there is atendency for the bag to form a deep crease at the lowest point of thebag and instead of bringing about the desired tumbling motion of thecontents, raising and lowering the ends of the bag only serves to movethe crease along the bag.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the problems with the prior art andprovides a bag for mixing flowable materials which mitigates theforegoing problem and enables mixing of flowable solids to be carriedout manually and easily under clean conditions.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provideda bag for enabling a flowable solid to be mixed with a liquid, the bagbeing elongate and having walls formed entirely of a flexible liquidimpermeable material, the bag further having a handle at each end and aresealable mouth for enabling the ingredients to be mixed to beintroduced into the bag, characterised in that the bag is fashioned tohave a greater girth at its center than near its ends.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided apackage comprising one or more flowable solids contained within anelongate flexible liquid-impermeable bag having a handle at each end forenabling the bag to be gripped manually and a resealable mouth forallowing a liquid to be added to the contents of the bag, characterisedin that the bag is fashioned to have a greater girth at its center thannear its ends.

The bag may suitably be formed by welding two sheets of plasticsmaterial to one another along a curved a path.

The seal used to close the bag need only be sufficient to prevent powderingredients from escaping and may be formed in the same way as theextruded seals on some polythene bags which comprise a cylindrical beadon one side received in a cylindrical socket on the opposite side.

It is desirable for the bags used for mixing to be disposable bags sothat they may also serve for packaging the constituents of the mixture.In this case, there is no need to clean the bags after use and there isno risk of cross contamination between batches of the mixture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The foregoing and other features, and advantages ofthe invention will be apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a mixing bag,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the mixing gab shown in FIG. 1 when empty,

FIG. 3 is a view similar to that of FIG. 2 showing a mixing bag with analternative form of handle,

FIG. 4 illustrates a seal.

FIG. 5 illustrates a measuring vessel that is in a bag, and

FIG. 6 illustrates flowable solids in a bag.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

It should be understood that these embodiments are only examples of themany advantageous uses of the innovative teachings herein. In general,statements made in the specification of the present application do notnecessarily limit any of the various claimed inventions. Moreover, somestatements may apply to some inventive features but not to others. Ingeneral, unless otherwise indicated, singular elements may be in theplural and vice versa with no loss of generality. In the drawing likenumerals refer to like parts through several views.

FIG. 1 shows a banana-shaped mixing bag 10 with handles 12 at itsopposite ends and a fastener 14 extending along its length. The bag 10is made of a plastics material, such as polyethylene, which isliquid-impermeable and strong enough to support the weight of the mixwhich is to prepared within it. The fastener 14 is preferably of theextruded type used in resealable bags, having a part cylindrical beadalong one side and an elongate part cylindrical socket for receiving thebead along the opposite side. It is alternatively possible to form thefastener as a zip fastener. The mouth of the bag may take other forms solong as it may be resealed after it has been opened. The “seal” in thiscontext need not necessary be an airtight seal, so long as it is able toprevent the powder from escaping from the bag during mixing.

The bag of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2 in its flat state, before beingfilled with the constituents of the mix. The bag 10 can be formed bywelding two sheets of plastics material along a generally ellipticalpath. The handles 12 are formed separately and attached to the plasticsmaterial of the bag. In the alternative construction shown in FIG. 3,the handles 12′ are formed by cut-outs with welded edges. FIGS. 1 and 2illustrate two handles 12 lying in a plane. An elongated body of the bag10 in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, illustrates in an embodiment that body isformed to have a greater width in the plane at a center portion of theelongated body that tapers to a smaller width near the first end and thesecond end.

In use, of the bags in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 the constituents of the mix thatis to be prepared are placed in the bag and the appropriate volume ofliquid is added to the mix. For example, if preparing mortar, sand andcement would be placed in the bag and water would be added. The seal 14is then closed to retain the powder within the bag and mixing is carriedout by alternately raising the two handles 12 to cause the contents ofthe bag to roll and tumble alternately in opposite directions. Becauseall the mixture is contained in the bag, mixing can be carried out withlittle or no mess and the tumbling action mixes the constituents almostas quickly and as thoroughly as a powered mixer.

The mix can be carried to the site where it is to be used by means ofthe same bag. If both handles 12 or 12′ are held together, the bag 10can be carried without the risk of spillage of the mix. Once the mix hasbeen used, the bag can be re-used. If the mix is still wet, it can bewashed out readily. If the mix is allowed to harden, on the other hand,because the material of the bag is flexible it can be peeled away fromthe hardened residue.

Even though the bag can readily be re-used, it is more convenient for itto be disposable and to this end it is possible to use the bag as thepackaging for the constituents. Thus, when buying a bag of plaster, thepowder would be packaged in a bag of the invention and the user wouldhave only to open the bag and add water. The package may in this caseadditionally include a measuring vessel included in the bag, such as aplastics ball or a graduated bucket, to ensure that the correct quantityof water is added to the mix.

Though the invention has been described by reference to buildingmaterial, it may be used in other applications. For example, whenbaking, one may need to mix together powder ingredients such as flour,sugar and cocoa powder and then to add liquids such as water, milk andegg yokes to form a mix.

Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, itwill be understood by those having skill in the art that changes can bemade to this specific embodiment without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention. The scope of the invention is not to berestricted, therefore, to the specific embodiment, and it is intendedthat the appended claims cover any and all such applications,modifications, and embodiments within the scope of the presentinvention.

1. A bag for enabling a flowable solid to be mixed with a liquid, thebag comprising: an elongated body with walls formed entirely of aflexible liquid-impermeable material; one or more handles attached to afirst end and a second end of the elongated body, the one or morehandles lying in a plane; and a resealable mouth for enabling theingredients to be mixed to be introduced into the elongated body;wherein the elongated body is formed to have a greater width in theplane at a center portion of the elongated body that tapers to a smallerwidth near the first end and the second end.
 2. The bag of claim 1,wherein the elongated body comprises two sheets of plastics materialwelded to one another along a curved a path.
 3. The bag of claim 2,wherein the resealable mouth includes a seal comprising: a partcylindrical bead on a first side of the resealable mouth; and apart-cylindrical socket on a second side of the resealable mouth;wherein the part-cylindrical socket is adapted to receive the partcylindrical bead.
 4. The bag of claim 1, wherein the resealable mouthincludes a seal comprising: a part cylindrical bead on a first side ofthe resealable mouth; and a part-cylindrical socket on a second side ofthe resealable mouth; wherein the part-cylindrical socket is adapted toreceive the part cylindrical bead.
 5. The bag of claim 1, wherein theelongated body forms a banana-shaped bag.
 6. A mixing packagecomprising: one or more flowable solids contained within an elongateflexible liquid-impermeable bag having a handle at each end for enablingthe bag to be gripped manually, the handle at each end lying in a plane;and a resealable mouth for allowing a liquid to be added to the contentsof the bag, characterized in that the bag is fashioned to have a greaterwidth in the plane at its center that tapers to a smaller width neareach end.
 7. The mixing package of claim 6, further comprising: ameasuring vessel, included in the bag, for ensuring that the correctquantity of liquid is added to the mix.
 8. The mixing package of claim7, wherein the resealable mouth includes a seal comprising: a partcylindrical bead on a first side of the resealable mouth; and apart-cylindrical socket on a second side of the resealable mouth;wherein the part-cylindrical socket is adapted to receive the partcylindrical bead.
 9. The mixing package of claim 6, wherein theresealable mouth includes a seal comprising: a part cylindrical bead ona first side of the resealable mouth; and a part-cylindrical socket on asecond side of the resealable mouth; wherein the part-cylindrical socketis adapted to receive the part cylindrical bead.
 10. The mixing packageof claim 6, wherein the one or more flowable solids includes at leastone of flour, sugar, coca powder.
 11. The mixing package of claim 6,wherein the one or more flowable solids includes at least one of cement,plaster, aggregate.
 12. The mixing package of claim 6, wherein theelongated body forms a banana-shaped bag.